Fruit Of Love & Joy

FACED WITH TOTAL KIDNEY failure and a failed kidney transplant, Selina Sayong is paying the world back with joy, an industrious spirit and a heart that reaches out to others in need.

"I have three kidneys and none of them function," Sayong says matter-of-factly. "That does not stop me from doing business or living my life. Life is what you make it. I enjoy my life, I take what life gives me with a smile, with laughter."

She markets extra-virgin coconut oil that coconut farmers extract by the cold press method–an endeavor that satisfies both her need to do business and her desire to help provide a viable and profitable livelihood for coconut farmers who have mainly subsisted on proceeds from the sale of copra, abaca and whole coconuts.

Thanks to funding provided by the office of Sen. Ramon Magsaysay Jr., these farmers have been able to branch out into other endeavors, including technology transfers that enable them to produce extra-virgin coconut oil, young coconut liquor and other products that draw an international market and command better prices.

With these new products and ready markets already in place, Sayong decided to put her skills in marketing and business to good use by selling the oil and Kahal liquor, as well as international quality Spanish-style sardines from Dipolog City.

"When I’m not on dialysis, I work. I help out at home, I do paperwork, I talk to clients, I do negotiations, I do advocacy work. But I do it in a relaxed manner," she says with a wide smile.

Since her kidneys failed three years ago and a transplanted kidney failed as well, Sayong has been undergoing twice-weekly, whole-day sessions at St. Luke’s Medical Center for complete hemodialysis or cleansing of her blood. "I no longer urinate, so the only way I am able to cleanse my system is through dialysis and by moving my bowels."

Her love affair with extra-virgin coconut oil began when she became part of the clinical trials for the oil a few years ago.

"I had no inclination, no connection with coconuts," Sayong says. "The nearest connection I had with coconuts was that I ate them in my food and that’s it."

Then a doctor friend gave her a sample of the oil to test it and "see if it would help me with my kidney problems, and it did. I was part of the clinical trials." Thus began her love affair with coconut oil.

"That’s when I started reading about it and learning about it, appreciating it and the potential and the value of the product," she says.

When Sayong first took the oil as a food supplement, "the first thing it did for me was it helped with my constipation problem. When you have kidney failure, you take a lot of medications and the tendency is to be constipated."

The oil also "helped me with my fungal problems–it’s anti-fungal, bacterial and viral. It helped me with an infected cyst. I put coconut oil on the cyst and now it’s gone."

She claims the coconut oil has also "improved my energy level and my skin", which is a problem for most kidney patients who suffer skin break-outs because their kidneys are unable to filter impurities from their blood.

Another kidney patient used the oil on her herpes zoster, Sayong shares. "Tanggal ang herpes zoster after the oil was applied (to the lesions)."

"I now have my doctors using it," Sayong says with a big smile. "The quality (of the Rare Earth brand) is high. We’re strict on the quality. If we smell something even slightly wrong with it, we will not market it in the same way. We will return the oil or change marketing in terms of price."

According to her, the coconut and coconut oil are "a part of the essence or soul or psyche of the country... it is part of the essence of being a Filipino. That’s part of why I am marketing this product. Virgin coconut oil, you can find it in other countries, but this one is Filipino and this was specially made just for the Filipino."

She sells the oil under the brand-name Rare Earth and has begun exploring other uses for the oil, such as using it as a base for scented massage oils packaged in matte glass spray bottles.

As far as living her life is concerned, Sayong says reducing stress and anger, as well as using extra virgin coconut oil and keeping active are what keep her life on an even keel.

"You suffer more problems if you give in to anger or depression. Naturally, when there is pain, you feel angry or sad. That’s okay, be in the moment, but when the pain has passed, let the anger and the sadness go," she says. "That’s my secret."

Insofar as business is concerned, Sayong has "changed the way I think. I am concerned about what’s happening (to the country), but I try to come up with business I know will go on. I need to come up with a business that will last and keep going. My buyers from abroad couldn’t care less if there is a coup d’etat here, as long I get to deliver the oil."

Having just started her business last year, Sayong says she doesn’t believe in rushing things to the point that you do things sloppily: "You need to be able to arrange everything so these things are in order."

While Sayong sells her products with an eye to profit for herself and her suppliers, she says she is picky about the products she chooses to market.

One of her best examples is Kahal, which, according to the product insert that goes with the beverage, "is the noblest Philippine beverage."

"This liquor was developed in Champagne, France and it was formulated there. The enzyme (used in producing the liquor) was donated by the French government to Philippine coconut farmers as their contribution to the improvement of these farmers’ source of livelihood," Saying explains.

Unlike tuba, its rougher cousin, Kahal is sweet, comparable in taste and texture to a light, sweet Riesling, with a sparkle that reminds one of fine champagne. Much as it tastes like wine, Kahal has a pretty potent kick, with an alcohol content of 13 percent.

The closest competition for Kahal’s taste and texture, its fruity bouquet and nutty aftertaste would be the tapuey (rice wine) of the highlands of the Cordilleras, but tapuey turns into vinegar just three days out of the tapayan (clay jar) in which it is brewed.

According to Sayong, it takes three weeks for the liquor’s producer, a cooperative of coconut farmers, to ferment and transfer the beverage into its coconut-shell and abaca bottle.

The beverage sells so well, she proudly shares, that Korean buyers have been known to pay up to P1,500 for a bottle.

"I am allotted 60 bottles of Kahal by the producer," she says. "As soon as I get those 60 bottles, my (main) client comes here to buy them all." The stock is constantly moving, with days when she must hoard some bottles for other buyers.

The beverage is also being sold on the Internet by other groups to serve the US and European markets.

She also sells De Mari brand sardines, which, she says, "have passed the strict standards of the European Union." These sardines are sold mainly in Europe, straight from the factory in Dipolog City.

"I want to sell quality products and I want to help people like the coconut farmers. My life is about quality, it is about inspiration," she says.

She likes climbing Mt. Banahaw, nature tripping, vegetarian food. She is also interested in alternative and wholistic studies and approaches to medicine and healing, as well as studies of spiritual teachings, knowledge and philosophy.

There are a lot of people out there who can inspire, the unsung heroes. There are a lot out there and I see them and I appreciate it," Sayong says with a lighthearted laugh.

Her next endeavor is to improve the quality of life for kidney patients. Her big vision is to be able to set up a foundation that will put together funding from donors for use in a livelihood and treatment facility for people suffering from kidney ailments.

Funding from donors, she explains, will be used not only to provide these kidney patients with treatment, "it will also be used to help them help themselves, so that the money will benefit more people by improving the quality of their lives, by helping them discover that they can still accomplish things with their lives despite their illness."

The point Sayong is trying to drive home is that people who suffer from renal illnesses must address the very real issues of self-esteem, depression and self-image, as well as the pressing onus of the financial and physical burdens that come with kidney illnesses.

"They must discover for themselves that life is good, despite bad kidneys, that life is worth living and that it can be lived with dignity and achievement, despite the disease," she insists. "This is what I want to do with my life."

Editor’s Note: Selina Sayong may be contacted at (0918)571-8371